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Juan Pierre enjoying life away from baseball

Bob Tompkins, 1:04 a.m. CDT August 24, 2014

Juan Pierre, the former Alexandria Senior High star, has not played baseball this season following a 14-year career in the majors. Pierre won a World Series title in 2003 with the Florida Marlins and leads all active players with 614 career stolen bases.(Photo: Steve Mitchell/USA Today)

Juan Pierre is in unfamiliar territory, but he's adjusting to life without baseball.

"I'm not even working out," said Pierre from his home in Parkland, Florida, 24 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale. He's still technically a "free agent," unsigned by any team after spending the last 14 seasons in Major League Baseball.

"I'm not looking to play this year," said Pierre, who was raised in Alexandria and played baseball at Alexandria Senior High School. "Nobody called."

Duty as a husband and father has called, though. He said he has been helping his wife, Liz, who is expecting their second son in a few weeks, raise their first son, 2-year-old Joshua.

Any thoughts of retiring?

"I haven't decided," said Pierre, who turned 37 earlier this month. "I haven't even thought about it. I'm just enjoying being home."

Pierre finished last season with the Miami Marlins ranked 18th in career steals in baseball history with 614 — more than any active major leaguer — and he pushed his career hit total to 2,217, placing him 175th in baseball history, right between Hall of Famers Joe Kelley and Joe DiMaggio.

Pierre began last season as the Marlins' leadoff hitter and left fielder, but as the team sank to the National League East cellar, the Marlins went to a youth movement in an effort to begin developing young players from their minor league system. They cast the veteran Pierre aside.

After July 7, Pierre started only two games and one was in the last game of the season — apparently a gesture of appreciation to Pierre, who helped the Marlins win the 2003 World Series.

It was during his first stint with the Marlins (2003-04) that he met Liz, a Pittsburgh native who worked in the marketing department for the Marlins at the time. They got married in 2010. Liz is Juan's second wife. His first marriage to the former Sonya Johnson of Alexandria ended after two years in 2003.

"I got traded, divorced and won the World Series in the same year," Pierre said, actually referring to his offseason trade from the Colorado Rockies to the Marlins in November of 2002, leading to the '03 World Series season.

An even bigger turning point in his life would come several years later. On Opening Day of 2008, with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second year of five-year, $44 million contract, he found himself sitting on the bench for the first time in his career.

"My whole foundation was rocked because all I cared about was baseball," he said. "I always wanted to play baseball. I had played in 800 straight games. I didn't know what was going on, and I was bitter and wanted to get traded."

Joe Torre, then the manager of the Dodgers, didn't trade Pierre, and he would live to see the day he was glad he didn't. He sat him in '08 while starting Andruw Jones instead in center field. Then he sat him at the start of the '09 season to play Manny Ramirez.

Pierre said 2008 was the toughest year of his life, even though he was paid $10 million that year, saying he'd go home and cry after games because "all I wanted to do was play." He said it was only later that he realized "God was breaking me down."

But his life "changed forever" in 2009 during spring training. That was when Pierre, who was raised as a Catholic and said he would find a Catholic church to attend Mass on Sundays in every major league city he was in during the season, experienced a change.

"I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus," he writes of that time on his Beast Mode web page. "I was just a fan of Jesus."

One Sunday during a chapel service, the Dodgers' spring training chaplain, Chad Johnson, spoke the words from Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Juan Pierre won a World Series championship with the Florida Marlins in 2003, but might be finished playing after 14 seasons in the majors.(Photo: Steve Mitchell/USA Today)

"As he was preaching it," Pierre writes, "it felt like his words were going right through me and I heard the Word for the first time in my life."

The Word didn't just come and go.

"In the spring of 2009, I gave my life to Christ and my life has not been the same since," he writes.

When Ramirez got a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, Pierre took his place in left field and filled in admirably.

"He's the feel-good story," Torre said at the time. "I've delivered bad news to him two years in a row — first with Andruw Jones, then when Manny came on board. He's more understanding about being a backup. He's been a pro through this whole thing."

By the end of the '09 season, Pierre was named the winner of the Roy Campanella Award, given annually to the Dodger player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the Hall of Fame catcher. And in 2010, his first of two seasons with the Chicago White Sox, he was the stolen base champion of the major leagues (68) for the third time in his career.

Through his career, Pierre was noted for his not-to-be-outdone work ethic, which he said was nurtured in him by his parents and solidified by coaches along the way, including former ASH baseball coach Don Boniol.

He laughs at being kidded "constantly" through his career about wearing a cap underneath his batting helmet.

"I got so much flack for that," he said. "I think I have the smallest head in the league — they had to put in special orders to try to get a helmet that would fit me. Since I was 8 or 9, I'd always put my hat on beneath my helmet to make it fit."

Pierre looks back on his career fondly, saying his favorite experience among the six different teams he played for was in Miami with the Marlins for the World Series championship season, "but every stop has been great."

He said being a Dodger ('07-09) "and wearing the same uniform Jackie Robinson wore" was a thrill, and he loved playing in storied Wrigley Field with the Cubs ('06). On playing in 2012 in Philadelphia, he said, "The fans there are very intense, and they will boo you, but that's because they care."

He said he has learned many lessons about the value of work and patience and faith in reaching goals and tries to spread that in motivational speeches.

He's not sure if his career is over, and prefers not to think about that possibility, while acknowledging it might be the end.

That prompted him to think of another Alexandrian who is making a name for himself as a former Peabody and Oklahoma State basketball star embarking on an NBA career in Brooklyn.

"Even if it is my last ride," he said, "I can pass the torch to Markel Brown."

Bob Tompkins' Tales from the Crossroads highlights residents or natives of Central Louisiana who are making an impact in their own way in the world of sports. If you know of someone, contact Bob at (318) 487-6349 or btompkins@thetowntalk.com. Connect with him on Twitter @Btom_TownTalk.

Juan Pierre

Age: 37

Hometown: Alexandria

Career highlights: Made MLB debut on Aug. 7, 2000, with the Colorado Rockies ... Led the National League in stolen bases in 2001 (46) and 2003 (65) and the American League in 2010, when he stole a career-high 68 ... Ranks 18th all-time and first among active players with 614 stolen bases ... Won the 2003 World Series with the Florida Marlins ... Batted .275 or better for the first 13 times in his career, including .300 or better six times ... Played all 162 games for five straight seasons (2003-07) ... Career .295 batting average and .343 on-base percentage ... Compiled 200 or more hits four times and has 2,217 career hits, which ranks 175th in MLB history.

Public Speaking

If you would like Juan Pierre to speak to a youth group, you can contact him at info@beastmodeforchrist.com.